At a Glance
- Tasks: Build and ship production-grade AI agents and workflows for a web-native trading platform.
- Company: Join a cutting-edge tech company focused on AI innovation.
- Benefits: Enjoy remote work, competitive salary, and opportunities for professional growth.
- Other info: Fully remote role with light travel for team meetups.
- Why this job: Make a real impact in AI while working with the latest technologies.
- Qualifications: 8+ years in software engineering with expertise in APIs and LLM systems.
Explicitly rejects 'vibe coding'—requires writing production code and building agent systems and integrations.
About the Role
Build and ship production-grade AI agents, agentic workflows, and LLM integrations for internal automation and in-product features for a web-native trading platform. Own implementation, observability, and security while partnering with Product and Platform teams to deliver measurable AI systems in production.
Job Description
Role
Senior/Principal Applied AI Engineer responsible for designing, building, and operating production AI agents, agentic workflows, and the orchestration/harness layers that integrate LLMs into internal systems and the trading product. This is a hands-on engineering role: you will write production code, put evaluation and observability on everything shipped, and operate autonomously in a lean team.
Key Responsibilities
- Build agent loops, tool-calling, structured outputs, planning/state management, retries, guardrails, and orchestration layers on top of LLM provider APIs (Anthropic, OpenAI, open-weight models, MCP).
- Ship internal AI automations to remove engineering/support/growth toil by integrating with existing tooling (GitHub, Slack, Intercom, Jira) or building bespoke solutions when required.
- Prototype and productionize in-product AI capabilities for the trading terminal and developer experience, collaborating closely with Product and Core Platform Engineering.
- Make buy-vs-build decisions and integrate or replace third-party platforms where appropriate to deliver outcomes.
- Implement evaluation, observability, and cost/latency guardrails (golden datasets, eval harnesses, tracing, fallback chains, spend controls).
- Operate within security and AI governance constraints (SOC 2 / ISO, approved-tooling allowlist) and handle source/customer/product data responsibly.
Requirements
Must-haves
- 8+ years of production software engineering experience with deep expertise in APIs, integrations, REST, webhooks, OAuth, event-driven and distributed systems.
- 2–3+ years building and shipping production LLM/agent systems from scratch against provider APIs, including writing agent loops, orchestration/harness, tool-calling, guardrails and RAG.
- Hands-on fluency in Python and TypeScript and ownership of production code (this is not a no-code/low-code or advisory role).
- Strong evaluation and observability practices (golden datasets, eval harnesses, tracing, graceful failure modes, cost/latency controls).
- Deep LLM-API fluency (Anthropic/OpenAI/open-weight), MCP, agent frameworks, and familiarity with AI coding tools (Claude Code, Cursor).
- Cloud and delivery experience: AWS and/or DigitalOcean, Docker, CI/CD, SQL/Postgres.
- Strong buy-vs-build judgment and security/data-governance maturity.
- High autonomy and experience operating in lean teams.
- Located in EU/UK timezones with solid overlap with Central European hours.
Nice-to-haves
- Fintech/trading/market-data domain experience or experience as a trading-platform user.
- Open-source contributions to AI tooling (LangChain, LlamaIndex, vLLM, DSPy, or similar).
- Production RAG and vector-database experience; experience with code-generation, transpilation, or developer-experience tooling.
Logistics
- Location: Europe (EU/UK) — fully remote; must overlap Central European working hours.
- Employment type: Full-Time (via Employer-of-Record in your home country).
- Travel: Light, occasional team/leadership meetups.
Skills
System Design API Integration Distributed Systems Agent Design Observability Evaluation & Metrics Security & Data Governance Cloud Infrastructure CI/CD Autonomous Execution Buy-vs-Build Decision Making Product Collaboration
Experience Level
Employment Type
Full Time
- Fully Remote (Europe EU/UK)
- Employment via Employer-of-Record in your home country
- Occasional team/leadership meetups (light travel)
#J-18808-Ljbffr
Senior / Principal Applied AI Engineer (UK / Europe, Remote) employer: Vibehackers
As a Senior/Principal Applied AI Engineer at our innovative trading platform, you'll thrive in a dynamic remote work environment that champions autonomy and collaboration. We prioritise meaningful contributions over 'vibe coding', offering you the chance to build impactful AI systems while enjoying a culture that fosters professional growth and embraces cutting-edge technology. With flexible working hours aligned with Central European time, we ensure a supportive atmosphere where your expertise in production-grade code can shine.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Senior / Principal Applied AI Engineer (UK / Europe, Remote)
✨Join Local Tech Meetups
Get out there and mingle with fellow developers by joining local tech meetups. It’s a fantastic way to meet people who might be working at Vibehackers or know someone who does. Plus, you can pick up some trendy tech skills and trends while you're at it!
✨Contribute to Open Source Projects
Show off your coding chops by jumping into open-source projects. Not only does this give you practical experience, but it also gets you noticed in the dev community. You'll create a killer portfolio that speaks volumes about your skills to Vibehackers.
✨Tap into Online Developer Communities
Don’t underestimate the power of online developer communities like GitHub, Stack Overflow, and even Reddit. Participate in discussions, share your projects, and build your visibility. We can often find opportunities through these channels that can lead to a full-time gig at companies like Vibehackers.
✨Explore Job Boards Specifically for Tech Roles
Keep your eyes peeled on job boards that focus on tech roles. Sites like TechCareers or Stack Overflow Jobs can often have listings for companies like Vibehackers that might not show up on broader job sites. Make it a habit to check these regularly, and don’t hesitate to apply directly through our website!
We think you need these skills to ace Senior / Principal Applied AI Engineer (UK / Europe, Remote)
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show off your coding skills:When applying for a software engineering role, it's super important to showcase your coding skills. Make sure your CV includes your tech stack, any relevant programming languages you’re comfortable with, and examples of projects you've worked on. If you have a GitHub profile, link it up! We love to see code in action.
Tailor your portfolio:For a full-time role, we’d expect to see some solid examples of your work in your portfolio. Make sure to include at least two or three projects that highlight your problem-solving skills and your ability to work with different technologies. Focus on the projects that are most relevant to the position at Vibehackers.
Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at Vibehackers and how your skills align with the role. Show us your passion for software development. We dig enthusiastic candidates who understand the value of collaboration and continuous learning!
Be clear and concise:When it comes to writing your CV and cover letter, clarity is key. Avoid jargon that could confuse us and stick to simple, direct language. Highlight your achievements with quantifiable results where possible, and keep everything easy to read. A well-organised application goes a long way!
How to prepare for a job interview at Vibehackers
✨Brush Up on Your Coding Skills
For a full-time software engineering role, it's crucial that we stay sharp with our coding abilities. Expect technical questions that might involve solving problems on the spot or discussing algorithms. Practise on platforms like LeetCode or HackerRank to get comfortable with the types of questions that often come up.
✨Know Your Tools and Frameworks
Make sure we’re well-acquainted with the tools and technologies listed in the job description. Familiarise ourselves with any specific frameworks or programming languages mentioned. If Vibehackers uses React or Node.js, for instance, be ready to discuss how we’ve used them in previous projects or coursework.
✨Showcase Your Projects
Bring along a portfolio that highlights our best work. This could be code samples, GitHub repositories, or any side projects we’ve built. Make sure we can talk through our thought process for each project, especially the challenges we faced and how we solved them—this shows our problem-solving skills in action.
✨Prepare for Behavioural Questions
While technical skills are key, full-time positions also require cultural fit. Be ready to discuss our previous experiences and how we handle teamwork, conflict, and deadlines. Brush up on the STAR method—Situation, Task, Action, Result—to clearly articulate our past experiences when discussing how we've contributed to a team.
